Beer in the new era

Yeah a friend told be Ale Asylum was fairly basic and in his words, a weird vibe. But it was close and I can get with that.

Yeah, I think I paid $34 for the cascade?? Typically wouldn't have, but I was drunk. So I guess I typically would have then.

The key to Cascade is going to Portland (or weirdly Honolulu) where the prices are 40% less than anywhere else. They used to ship direct to customers at fair prices but they got in trouble for that.

re honolulu I'm guessing cascade gets distribution through the craft brew alliance: http://craftbrew.com/about/

Bought a Modern Times Fruitlands Apricot Gose yesterday at Trader Joe's after all the fruit/gose talk. Will try it this weekend likely.

I got to try that Briny Melon on tap last night, it was a little strong on the melon flavor for me and a little light on the sour/salty, I might try it again but I think I prefer the standard AVB version.

The key to Cascade is going to Portland

I've been to Portland a lot but have still haven't made it to Cascade though I'm going to have remedy that in the next couple of days.

Bought a Modern Times Fruitlands Apricot Gose yesterday at Trader Joe's after all the fruit/gose talk. Will try it this weekend likely.

― nickn, Friday, March 11, 2016

Finally tried this Sunday night, quite good. On the first sip I thought it might be too apricotty, but just a sip or two later it seemed well balanced. Drank it with Indian food, which was a good match.

that sounds so good. one of my favorite beers is the cascade apricot. it's pricey but i think it's the best one they do and it tastes amazing like apricots.

I picked up a Goose Island variety pack last night and the liquor store initially rang it up as $1700.

lol

Beer: Which is the worst-sounding flavor of Leinenkugel's?

Released in advance of the WA Collaboration Festival, picked up two bottles of the Reuben's / Bale Breaker IPL from The Beer Junction. Very tasty. Any others, bottled, to recommend?

Any opinions on this year's KBS? Much better than what I remember of last year's version.

i don't recall if i had it last year but i was able to get a full 4-pack this year. i'd say it's very good but not a standout.

I'm only getting two bottles. That's enough. I'm buying and saving less beer these days anyway.

i'm trying to save less too (i don't currently have a good place to save beer) but damned if the full 4 wasn't there for the taking. i'm not saving it beyond the next couple weeks.

I like this type of beer but underwhelmed by KBS. Enjoyed a big Pipeworks Coconut Jones Dog tonight, though.

i bought some lagunitas aunt sally the other day, it is a very hoppy sour ale, very light in color. i was skeptical at first, there is an annoying trend to just take some beer style and make it hoppy -- "sour ale ... with hops!!!....brown ale...with hops!!!....golden lager...with extra hops!!!" but it is really really good

lots of hops + weird yeast can be sorta unpredictable, but i usually like the results. check out grimm echoplex if you see it, hazy NE ipa juice + sourness. i also dig a lot of the more crisp grimm dry-hopped sours, and trinity red swingline is worth a shot too. probably some of the weirdest beers out there imo.

side note - i was lucky enough to stumble into some hill farmstead double citra on tap, shit is NUTS. have yet to have anything bad from hf but this was in another league, pine sap fresh from the forest. my platonic ideal dipa.

I posted about dry-hopped sours that I like a while back, let me dig up that post in a sec, in the meanwhile:

side note - i was lucky enough to stumble into some hill farmstead double citra on tap, shit is NUTS. have yet to have anything bad from hf but this was in another league, pine sap fresh from the forest. my platonic ideal dipa.

― hug niceman (psychgawsple), Monday, April 11, 2016 7:55 PM (7 minutes ago)

Yes! My buddy gave me a growler of it and it was unforgettable. Can't agree more with you...

https://scontent-sjc2-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/12934964_228552994166769_1217236760_n.jpg

lol sorry so hueg^^^

dry hopped sours I enjoyed 5 months ago:

Cantillon Iris: fresh & dry hopped, pale ale malted, then spontaneously fermented like a lambic would be (then fresh-hopped again?)
Cantillon Cuvee St. Gilloise: gueuze blend that undergoes a 3 week cask dry hopping
Prairie Funky Gold Mosaic: bretty/lacto saison that gets dry hopped in copious Mosaic hops
The Rare Barrel Egregious: Oak-aged golden sour dry-hopped with Amarillo
DeGarde Hose: Gose aged in wine barrels with coriander, citrus peel and various hop blends

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, October 21, 2015 10:58 AM (5 months ago)

<3 hose when they use the right hop profile. i was actually going to ask you for more hoppy sour recommendations! there need to be more subcategories for these things, strange that something like echoplex could be in the same "wild ale" style category as bourbonic plague or atrial rubicite or w/e.

and yeah, i have had a lot of single-hop citra beers but double citra is just magical.

lots of hops + weird yeast can be sorta unpredictable, but i usually like the results. check out grimm echoplex if you see it, hazy NE ipa juice + sourness. i also dig a lot of the more crisp grimm dry-hopped sours, and trinity red swingline is worth a shot too. probably some of the weirdest beers out there imo.

totally, everything i've had from grimm btw has been outstanding

otter creek citra mantra is so tasty

I mentioned it earlier but I'm liking Deschutes Pinedrops, which doesn't have any Citra (it's Nugget, Northern Brewer, Chinook, Centennial, Equinox, per their site) but does have a nice piney flavor. A local supermarket has a 30% off when you buy four 6-packs deal so I get it for $8.40, which is real bargain.

https://www.deschutesbrewery.com/beer/pinedrops-ipa/

yeah that one's a winner, very nice, probably the best Deschutes attempt at an IPA along with the Fresh Squeezed

Surly Xtra-Citra Pale Ale ... eh. Sometimes I think that what some of these session beers do to try to taste like their full-octane brethren mostly serves to highlight, like diet soda and vegetarian meat substitutes, just how far short of the mark they fall as substitutes.

Sucaba 2014 on tap at South Loop Binnys, Chicagoans. BCBS too.

For a change of pace from the goses I had a Humboldt Brewery Black Xantus Imperial Stout tonight. 11% abv and it showed, but it was a really nice, complex but smooth, almost a barrel-aged quality, though it's not.

Black Xantus is totes barrel aged, and it's great. It's like a coffee version of Parabola.

http://www.humboldtbrewingco.com/black-xantus/?age-verified=b7835d5e1c

Did not know that, funny they don't mention it (or the coffee) on the bottle. Also didn't make make the connection to the Nectar beer line. Will drink again.

This is the year my wife got back into running and stuff, and she was the only one helping to put a dent in my stouts and other heavy/big beers. I had a party over the winter to try to make a bigger dent, but the lightweights there (me included) barely did damage. As summer creeps closer and I see my cluttered beer closet, I can't even imagine a pace that would help me reduce my backlog. :(

It's hopeless. But we're set for the next prohibition.

@nick n... yeah and in previous years it's basically been Parabola (with coffee adjunct) merely rebranded with a different label, it's made at Firestone Walker by the FW brewmaster.

Well, I can't remember what I paid for it (seems like $10 or less), with no scouring liquor stores or pleading for favors. I'll have to go back for more.

TIL:

Grimm (Brooklyn, NY) is run by Lauren & Joe Grimm... Joe is Larkin's brother and performed as The Wind-Up Bird.

I had no idea, but now that I see the names of their beers, it makes sense.

finally a reason to return to catholicism

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-monk-beer-20160513-snap-story.html

“I knew the difference between craft beer and run-of-the-mill factory beer,” says Father Benedict Nivakoff of his life before committing himself to monastic life. He is from Connecticut, but you’d hardly know it from the traditional black robe, long-growth beard and intonation, which is a result of his polylingualism.

Monks have a storied history of brewing beer, but in Italy the industry has always been wine. Today, these Benedictine monks are brewing and exporting Birra Nursia to the U.S. as a means of fulfilling the Rule of Saint Benedict, which requires self-sufficiency through work.

so i was in denver last week and hit up some great places. crooked stave is the goat as per usual. also went to stem cidery which was fantastic (ciders have blown up there - there must have been 10 cider breweries), spangalang, strange brews, some other less notable places. unfortunately i've been way sick so i couldn't really drink to my heart's content but it truly is beer mecca.

also grabbed a 6 pack of the new lagunitas sour yesterday - excited to try it.

aunt sally?

if so, it is outstanding

yeah that one - looks great

anyone checking out the sierra nevada beer camp mixed 12? it's expensive but i was bringing beers to a friends house anyway and justified the purchase by giving away half the box. the dipa ("imperial session" lol) and imperial brown are very nice so far.

I bought one last week, but haven't tried any of them yet (too much other beer in the house). I paid $30, which was more than any previous beer camp box, even the 12-brewery collab of a few years ago.

jjj was telling me last night that the Beer Camp mixed 12 had some great things in it; I'm probably picking one up tonight

Those things always let me down. Tickers love 'em tho.

the only sierra nevada in my fridge is a bottle of bigfoot

bought a bunch of other beers but they're all sub-7s so nothing of note

http://www.worldbeercup.org/winners/award-winners/

i know this is all subjective, but this is a weird list

Ommegang makes sense to me, at least